LIST OF THE PAPERS OF H.A. HUMPHREY

Correspondence, papers, reports, patent specifications and engineering drawings. This collection contains material relating to Herbert Humphrey's work for the Ministry of Munitions, Department of Explosives Supplies during the first world war at series H.A. HUMPHREY/G.

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

* An asterisk indicates that the material described is a carbon copy of a typewritten original.

B.A. & S.F. Badische Anilin - und Soda Fabrik

C G L I City and Guilds of London Institute

Proc. I.E.E. Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers

Proc. I.M.E. Proceedings of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers

F C G I Fellowship of the City and Guilds of London Institute

HAH Herbert Alfred Humphrey

The papers were arranged in packets or folders. An alphabetic system of reference has been used to identify particular items in the present list.

<span class="wrapper"><p>Student notebooks.</p> <p>The following notebooks are in the archives; they were probably presented by H.A. Humphrey himself, at some date between 1933 - 1939.</p> <p>FINSBURY TE CHNICAL COLLEGE: notebooks made while a student, 1883 - 1885.</p> <p>Mechanical engineering and applied mathematics. Three notebooks of lectures by Professor Perry, with the following dates:</p> <p>10 October [1883], 5 December 1884, - June 1885. They include notes on gas engines, engine log book, etc.</p> <p>Electrical engineering and applied physics. Two notebooks, one dated 10 October 1883. Lectures by Professor Ayrton on physics, electricity, etc. The undated volume contains a printed copy of the laboratory regulations of the Physical Department, pasted in, and much other printed matter; details of experiments, etc.</p> <p>CENTRAL INSTITUTION, later CENTRAL TECHNICAL COLLEGE: notebooks made while a student, 1885 - 1887.</p> <p>Lectures by Professor Ayrton on electricity and physics. 8 October 1885 - Physics laboratory. Notebooks of experimental work, etc. 22 October 1885.</p> <p>Lectures on engineering by Professor Unwin, October 1885. The end of the notebook contains engineering examples.</p> <p>Machine design, 9 October 1885. The end of the book contains notes on design of a rolling mill; - design of a turbine; - design of a bridge.</p> <p>Lectures on the steam engine by Professor Unwin. 20 January 1887.</p> <p>Experiments at the CGLI Central Institution. Boiler testing. Undated but one experiment is dated 1887.</p> <p>Lectures by Professor Olaus Henrici, 1885 - 1886.</p> <p>Mathematics, summer term, 1885. Unnamed but in HAH's hand.</p></span>

Dr. J. Humphrey, FRS, gave the collection of his father's papers, listed here, to Imperial College in 1970. They fortunately survived the general destruction of his personal papers which H.A. Humphrey described in a letter to Professor Hutton, on 12 September 1948, from his new home in South Africa:" All my data and records, and the contents of box files occupying 36 feet of shelves, all my drawings and 100 volumes of my private diary, have been burnt in an incinerator. It took my gardener 3 weeks to do the job...So here I am, without any records..."

Mr. Denis Smith, who is preparing a detailed study of Humphrey's work for the Newcomen Society, most kindly listed the engineering drawings, and has also provided much useful information.

In 1885 H. A. Humphrey was one of the first students at the new Central Institution, now one of the constituent colleges of Imperial College. He was later one of the first Fellows of Imperial College. He retained his interest in his old college as a member of the 'Old Centralians', and contributed articles to 'The Central', the journal of the Old Students' Association. At some time in the early thirties, when it was decided to establish a Muniment Room at Imperial College, he must have presented his notebooks, made when a student. These are now in the archives.

Herbert Alfred Humphrey: details of his career

1868 Born at Gospel Oak, London, on 2 December.

1883 Became a student in the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Finsbury Technical College.

1885 Became a student in the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department of the Central Institution, later the City and Guilds College.

1887 Awarded the ACGI (Associateship of the City and Guilds Institute: the diploma of the Central Institution).

1888 Appointed as Manager of the Engine and Electrical Department at the Newton Heath Iron Works, near Manchester, of Heenan and Froude Ltd.

1889 Appointed, in addition to the above, as Manager of the Birmingham branch of Heenan and Froude.

1891 Appointed as Manager of the Refined Bicarbonate and Crystal Department, Messrs. Brunner, Mond, Northwich, Cheshire.

1893 Elected a Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute.

1901 Started practice as a consulting engineer.

1906 Patented the 'Humphrey Pump'.

1909 - 10 President of the 'Old Centralians'.

1913 Official opening of the Metropolitan Water Board installation of the pump at Chingford, by HM King George V.

1914 Work carried out for Admiralty; elected a member of the Royal Institution.

1915 Appointed a member of the Department of Explosives Supplies, Ministry of Munitions.

1917 Joined the Munitions Inventions Department of the Ministry.

1919 Director and Consulting Engineer to Synthetic Ammonia and Nitrates Limited (a subsidiary of Brunner, Mond) at Billingham.

1926 Consulting Engineer to Imperial Chemical Industries, until retirement, 1931.

1928 - 29 Construction of boiler and power plant at Billingham.

1930 Received the Paris Premium of the Institution of Electrical Engineers for joint paper on power plant at Billingham.

1932 Elected Fellow of Imperial College.

1939 Awarded Melchett medal of the Institute of Fuel.

1945 Retired to Hermanus, Cape Province, South Africa.

1951 Died in South Africa on 9 March.